Sir Alex Ferguson has claimed that Samir Nasri has agreed to leave Arsenal - but not to join Manchester United.

The United manager made his comments shortly after arriving in Boston on the first leg of his club's five-match United States tour.

With Paul Scholes now retired, Ferguson is on the look-out for a replacement.

Wesley Sneijder and Luka Modric have been linked with an Old Trafford move, but so has Nasri, with United said to have had a £20million bid for the France midfielder turned down.

"I don't think he is coming to United," said Ferguson.

"That is all I can tell you. I think that he has agreed to go somewhere else."

Nasri has gone on tour with Arsenal to Malaysia and manager Arsene Wenger has indicated he may keep the player for the final year of his contract, and thus risk losing him for nothing in 12 months' time.

"That is his decision," said Ferguson. "He is the manager.

"If he stands by that decision, it is a brave one. I don't know if the (Arsenal) directors will enjoy that one, but it is possible.

"Maybe he will have to stay."

However, if he is not going to get Nasri, Ferguson refuses to abandon the idea of bringing in anyone, even if a like-for-like replacement for Scholes is beyond his imagination.

"It is impossible to get another Paul Scholes," he said. "But if we get a player along similar lines in terms of the quality of his passing and vision, we would have to do something.

"The difficulty is, if you picked the best four midfield players in the world, Scholes would be there with Xavi and Andres Iniesta. Then you could take a pick from somewhere else.

"It is a loss. How do we overcome it? The next few weeks could help us in that respect. Someone could emerge out of the youth team and we carry on."

If Nasri is to leave Arsenal and not end up at Old Trafford, Manchester City would be the obvious destination.

And should Ferguson get anyone, Sneijder is now the most likely given Modric has already expressed a preference for Chelsea if he can engineer a move from Tottenham.

Whether United are willing to pay the Dutch World Cup star a weekly wage of around £250,000 is another question.

Ferguson does know he is building for the future though, even if he refuses to state United are emerging into a new era despite the retirements of Scholes, Gary Neville and Edwin van der Sar, plus the exits of long-serving duo Wes Brown and John O'Shea and arrivals of Phil Jones, Ashley Young and David de Gea.

"Not next season," said Ferguson of the 'new' United claim.

"We try to look ahead. We try to make sure there is an influx of young players coming in to replace the older players that are dying on their feet.

"For the last three years we were well aware of the need to replace Ryan Giggs. Fortunately, he is carrying on and performing the way he does.

"But Gary Neville left, Paul Scholes and Edwin van der Sar retired. We were well aware we would have to replace them at some point.

"The work in the last two or three years has been about that. Trying to make sure there is the quality in the squad to carry on the success."